St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-13

thought uOuDtleSS he raised q cOnVen-
lent AK and Drained his prosecutor. He
did just what he should have done. but
for all that he was tried, convicted and
hanged. Being cOlored man and piOus.
that condition of affairs suggested
prayer meetings, and social circles were
held in the prisoners room for week
prior to his taking off. l spent the
night prior to his execution in the
Jail with him and his friends and | had
also spent the other night with Gordon
and his friends, or rather his keepers.
Such prayers you never heard, (neither
did y and have heard all sorts and
kinds of prayers. / have heard Brother
Finney. the evangelist, pray as though
he believed the Supreme Being was a
devil incarnate. crafty anxious to damn
every soul he could get and to plunge
every human being, man, woman or
baby into the deepest hell His omnipo-
tency could devise. | heard Elder
Knapp swing around the circle of peti-
tlon with OratOrical vebemency. l
heard dear old Lyman Beecher
Pray His Level Best
that temperance might spread her white
wings over all the earth. l heard his
son, Henry Ward Beecher, play in re-
vival times, pray in anti-Slavery days.
Pitty III thC n SSlOOiuy hOulS VI
national deSpondency and universal
gloom. l have heard little baby minis
tiers pray. tell God how to rule the uni
verse and how to sit upon its circles
more comfortably and more convenient
ly; L have heard the rude and the culti-
waited, the rich and the poor, the intelli-
gent and the brutal approach the throne
of grace, each in his own mysterious
way, but never in all my life, in camp
meeting, in church, in solemn assem-
blage of any sort or kind did ever hear
such fervency of petition, did notice
such enthusiasm of recognition of
divine power and clemency as | heard
that night. Hawkins was camp meeting
leader of enormous proportions himself
and all his friends had the gift of piOus
CAB beyond expression. Well, when
his hour came and he was to be led
forth to the Scaffold, he was offered
drink of whisky. lie pushed it away
with a asgesture almost sublime. He
walked like man, stood like man,
and looking about upon the circle of
spectators said: Last week you saw
white man die drunk. He went into
the presence Of his maker. Look now
at the spectacle of black man dying,
and see how humbly, yet surely, he
goes to eternal rest in the bosom of his
Heavenly Father.p The significance of
this, at that time, twenty-five years ago.
when black men were chattels, when
slaves were bought and sold
as to-day we buy pigs and
horses, was very much greater than
it could be now. A contrast so drawn
meant something, and there wasn't
man in all that court yard who didn't
feel proud of being member of the
same race that this man was, of the
great human family whose sturdineSS,
mental, moral and physical, had been
travC stied by the conduct and bearing
of Capt. Gordon the week before, but
which was emphasized and laurel
crowned by the dignifed bearing and
the manly conduct of the poor colored
cook on that occasion. Who that saw
it can ever forget the execution OF the
assassins of President Lincoln? | al
most said the alleged aSSassins of PrcSi-
dent Lincoln, for the only one who
Fired the Shot
was that poor misguided youth. John
Wilkes Booth, in whom was centered
almost all the talent of that family. One
of the others was boy, and he died like
baby. One of the others was Il for
eigner who barely understood the Eng
liSh language, concerning whom there
is to-day grave doubts in the minds of
men well informed as to whether he
really knew the terrible deed Booth was
to commit. One of the others was wO-
man, Mrs. Surratt, and to-day no man
cogniZant of the facts believes she had
anything whatever to do with the deed
for which she had to suffer. But it was
national crisis. Therefore, it
was deemed fit that an ex-
ample should be made. and that
no possibility of escape could be per-
mitted. Perhaps it was right. Very
much perhaps it was wrong. However,
they died Enthusiastically. The
woman was stolid and Indifferent. the
foreigner was disposed to be frenzied,
but was quieted, the doctors know how,
the young man passed away limp and
exhausted, and the others simply stood
and met their fate as most men and as
were hanged and shot during the army
days on the fields and in the camps |
have no time to speak. We have come
down to later times. A family in New
Jersey, in Elizabeth. think, had a serv-
ant by the name OF Elizabeth Durgin.
She was in love with her master, and
consequently in hate with her mistress,
upon whom she fell one day with the
ferocity of a tigress and absolutely bit
and beat her to death. The marks of
her teeth, somewhat peculiarly formed.
were the clew which. followed up by
somewhat unusual circumstance by the
way-by the police-made her convic-
ton certain. Her execution was a dis
brought from the jail unattended by
woman and stood beneath the gallOws
tree, two uprights with a horizontal bar
and moose dangling from the center.
The sheriff had packed the Jail yard.
Absolutely there was not room for an
other person there. All were smoking.
''Down in 'front.'" Hats off, We're the
cries that saluted the ears of the terrified
woman. With Scant ceremony the cap
was
Pulled Over Her Eyes,
the rope was cut and the weight hoisted
her heavy body quickly into the air.
when, as the body moved with rapid
customary motion round and round like
top, so near We're the men laughing,
chatting, jeering, smoking men. that her
skirts brushed their knees. | never in
all my life saw more brutal thing in a
had some sensational hanging. That of
John Real, the murderer of Police Off |
Ger Smeedy, was very unique affair,
but perhaps the one that Occasioned |
most thought and acted as a kind of
sermOnic suggestion to the hanging ele-
ment of the country was the shuffiing
off of two young tOughs, one of |
whom was named McGloin, while !
that of the other has for the
moment escaped me. 81 am tough"
said McGloin as he rammed his knife |
blade into his victims heart one night. !
''The Lord have merry on my SOUL" said |
the same McGloin as he stood upon the |
scaffold some six months thereafter
and knew his fate was sealed. They |
were young fellows. types of our New |
York gangs, men who wore high hats,
smoke long cigars, are garbed fiaShiiy !
and strut through life with b-hoy de- |
meanOr indicative of get-out-Of-my-way-
or l,ll hrocl L los flharn or tla,,